As promised in previous posts, I will share with you my successes and failures as part of my New Year's Resolutions. Last night, I tried to make a Washi Egg which are traditional in Japan. The results were 50/50.
Rather than start with a blown out egg or a wooden egg which is traditionally done, I decided to use a papier mache egg that I bought at the local craft store. I bought many of them because this is a technique that I really want to master. The problem that I have with washi eggs is that there are many templates available but they are egg specific. In other words, the templates fit a certain size egg and as many of you know, eggs are not all the same size. Even when they are labeled the same size, there are variations.
By using a papier mache egg, I could design a template specific for that egg and then reproduce it because all of these eggs are somewhat identical.
The first mistake that I made was that I didn't use Japanese paper. I had this scrap of paper left from a previous project so I decided to use it. Big mistake. This is a paper manufactured in India and it is not as flexible as Japanese paper. Therefore, there were a lot more creases in the paper when trying to stretch and mold it around the curves of the egg.
The second mistake that I made was that the points that meet on the top where too sharp and thin. To minimize the amount of bulk at the top and bottom of the egg, you need to narrow your cuts so they meet rather than overlap. My cuts were much too drastic and should have been curved rather than straight cuts.
Tonight, I will post another example of a painted egg--an easy technique that I call Pollack Eggs.
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